Iran War Cheerleader ADMITS U.S. Lost

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Robert Kagan, the co-founder of the neo-conservative project for the new American Century, has confessed that the United States has officially lost the war against Iran, and ending the war might be the least bad option, as he writes. Now, before I give you the details of his argument, Jenk, your two cents.

[00:00:20]This argument was shocking. This is one of the top neocons, Israel firsters in the country, and even he's waving the white flag and saying, "We can't possibly win."

[00:00:32]But wait till you see his alternative.

[00:00:34]Go ahead, Anna. By the way, let me just say that this genius, who's giving us his expert analysis here, was one of the main cheerleaders goading the United States into attacking Iran.

[00:00:46]Genius, total genius, right? I believe Harvard-educated, but couldn't figure out that Iran was going to close the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:00:54]Was too much of a genius to figure out that Iran would attack oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf region?

[00:01:01]These are the people who get paid the big bucks to share their analysis on foreign policy.

[00:01:08]>> Yeah, Anna, I have a secret theory about this, which I want to share with you guys in a second, because it's not about their intelligence, obviously. They're all super smart. That's why they manipulated us into the Iraq War and the Iran War twice. But why is he potentially backpedaling out here?

[00:01:23]That's an interesting theory. But first, tell us why he recognizes it's over. We lost.

[00:01:28]>> So, the first thing to understand about this guy, Robert Kagan, is he's anything but a dove, okay? He's married to Victoria Nuland, who I've got issues with, but she previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney. So, that's who Nuland is.

[00:01:45]She was also the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in the Obama administration.

[00:01:53]Now, Kagan absolutely loves war, especially on behalf of Israel. In fact, he was a huge cheerleader of the Iraq war and does not see the Iraq war as a failure. In fact, in the piece he said that the initial failure in Iraq was mitigated mitigated by a shift in strategy that ultimately left Iraq relatively stable.

[00:02:12]Did it?

[00:02:14]And unthreatening to its neighbors. He means Israel. That's what he was talking about. Okay.

[00:02:20]But let's get into what he has to say about the Iran war. He does not have similar views on the Iran war. He believes that the United States has been defeated. In fact, here's what he says.

[00:02:30]Defeat in the present confronta- confrontation with Iran can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done.

[00:02:48]So he dives into the issue with the Strait of Hormuz, you know, something that honestly a novice political analyst would be able to predict, but here's what he says. The Strait of Hormuz will not be open as it once was. With control of the Strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world.

[00:03:12]The roles of China and Russia as Iran's allies are strengthened. The role of the United States substantially diminished.

[00:03:20]Thanks, Israel. Appreciate that.

[00:03:23]By the way, I mean, is that a major loss for Israel to know that US power has been diminished?

[00:03:29]>> [gasps] >> He further writes, "Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America's failure."

[00:03:50]Finally, Kagan admits defeat that if this isn't checkmate, it's close. In recent days, Trump has reportedly asked the US intelligence community to assess the consequences of simply declaring victory and walking away. You can't blame him. He says, walking away now could seem like the least bad option.

[00:04:13]But Cenk, what is it that he genuinely wants?

[00:04:17]So, there's two things. He says in the piece, "Look, the only alternative is a full-scale invasion." Right? Genius.

[00:04:25]He's >> troops, obviously American, not Israeli.

[00:04:28]Israeli lives are way too precious.

[00:04:29]Everyone knows that. Um you American lives, on the other hand, expendable.

[00:04:34]>> [snorts] >> Uh so, he said, "We can go big like that." But he doesn't make a big case for it, to be fair, right? He just says, "That's the only other alternative." But he even acknowledges, even in that alternative, like he says, "If you just try to wipe out their civilization through bombing alone." Now, again, he's wink wink, "Send me ground troops."

[00:04:51]Right? Uh but if you do it through bombing alone, they'll just bomb the Gulf countries' facilities. It'll take a decade or more to rebuild those. It'll be catastrophic economically. So, now, Okay, so he sets up that alternative, and that's one of the you know, hidden motives of this piece, right? And he's getting everybody to pay attention to it because this is one of the top Israel first guys going, "We lost. We lost. Checkmate." Right? So, but there's a second potential reason, Anna. Mhm.

[00:05:21]And I think that the Israeli backers are splitting among themselves.

[00:05:26]I think that some of the Israeli backers are going, "Wait. Why are we doing this?" Because they all know, they are Harvard educated. Not all of them, of course, but plenty of them, etc. They're The guys at the top are very well educated, very smart. They know. So, those guys are saying, "Look, we're going to destroy the American economy. I'm not sure that helps us cuz a lot of us are in America.

[00:05:47]>> Do they even care if it helps or hurts us? No, no, no. They don't care about us. They're worried about their own money. Okay. Okay, because most of their money is in America. So, some of them have begun to worry about that.

[00:05:58]>> Oh, okay. I know. Then they won't have enough to send to Israel.

[00:06:01]>> worried about your portfolio, Cenk Uygur?

[00:06:05]100%. Okay, so that's part of what's happening here. But But most importantly, a bunch of the Israelis have realized this is the wrong strategy. We're only going to get dragged in further, and we don't have that many interceptors. I don't know why Netanyahu keeps going further into the war. Well, if Iran doesn't stop, they think at any point they go, "Okay, we're out of interceptor missiles. Cease-fire. I took Southern Lebanon. I took Western Syria.

[00:06:32]Cease-fire." But what if Iran goes, "Yeah, I don't give a damn about your cease-fire. No cease-fire."

[00:06:36]>> to know why? Because Iran is actually way more honorable than Israel would ever have us believe. Uh if I were in Iran's shoes, I would still be bombing Tel Aviv right now.

[00:06:47]Yeah, I I don't know why >> Right now, at this very moment. Oh, oh, you think that our 10-point proposal is garbage? That's what Trump said in response to the Iranians today? Okay, great. Well, let the bombing commence.

[00:06:59]We're going to focus on Tel Aviv. So, apparently Trump is calling for unity after another violent incident. But the way this gets covered depends on who's trying to spin it and who's willing to call it out. On the right, the framing turns Trump into some kind of heroic victim, [music] a uniquely important figure being targeted because he's just that powerful. On the left, the focus is on Trump's long, obvious relationship with violent rhetoric and the political climate he helped [music] create. Same event, completely different narrative.

[00:07:27]And that is exactly why I recommend Ground News. It's a website and app that pulls together reporting from across the political spectrum, so you can compare headlines side by side, see the bias distribution of the coverage, check the factuality ratings of the sources, and even see who owns the outlets behind the reporting. Because once you start looking at coverage that way, it becomes a lot easier to see when the media isn't informing you, it's managing your perception. Ground News also has a blind spot feed, which highlights stories that one side of the political spectrum is barely covering at all, so you're not trapped inside the version of events your media bubble wants you to accept.

[00:08:04][music] If you're tired of being fed somebody else's narrative, I genuinely recommend Ground News. Go to ground.news/tyt or scan the QR code to get 40% off Ground News Vantage Plan.

[00:08:17]Yeah.

[00:08:17]>> Until the Israelis say please stop, please end the war, please, we can't take it anymore.

[00:08:21]>> So Anna's not just saying that, you know, because we're all greatly frustrated with Israel. It's strategic because because because what Big Kagan is basically saying right now is Anna's right. We can't keep going. What if they start leveling Tel Aviv?

[00:08:37]Well, hey, we got to get out of here, man. We thought maybe we could do an Iraq here and get the sucker Americans to spend trillions of dollars and lose thousands of men on our behalf and so that they could do a regime change, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

[00:08:51]It's not going to work. The economy is going to crash. We might even lose SOME OF OUR PRECIOUS MONEY, RIGHT? So like this is a big problem and in in the end it's going to cause Israel, the only thing they care about on planet Earth, Israel more damage, so maybe we got to backpedal out of here. So what you're going to see, if I'm right, what you're going to see going forward is a bigger schism uh between the different Israeli sides. Some going, "Hey, let's go further in and be maniacs and lunatics."

[00:09:18]And others going, "Why are we being lunatics? We already had America locked up. They didn't even know that we were robbing them blind for all these decades. They didn't know we stole all their nuclear secrets and their top secrets and their uranium and we got them to pay for all our wars. Now you're making it obvious, you schmuck. Let's get the hell out of here so they don't get they don't catch us. And >> You've been caught though. You've been caught. It's too late. You're Yeah, you're caught.

[00:09:44]>> Yeah. Uh just because they're not saying it on cable news, those bought don't represent anyone, okay? Oh, you didn't get caught by a 98-year-old watching MS now. Congratulations, okay?

[00:09:57]It's already over, but I like that splinter group because I want the war to stop. I want there to be peace. I want anything on Earth that can stop the genocidal Israeli government that exists today. That's true. Uh but the only way for that to work is again, the strategy that I mentioned needs to be carried out. And Israel is really lucky in that the very country that they fearmonger about as if they're vicious barbaric animals has uh carried out this war with far more honor than the Israelis have carried out anything.

[00:10:28]So, I haven't seen them uh target civilian infrastructure the way the Israelis do.

[00:10:35]I haven't seen them do anything other than specific strategic targeted strikes, which have worked by the way.

[00:10:41]Targeting the oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf has been very persuasive in getting Trump to agree to that ceasefire. The reason why he stopped bombing is because he's like, "Okay, the bombing campaign is only, you know, destroying the global economy because of how Iran retaliates strategically. So, No, no, there's no question about it if anybody in media were honest. Uh Israel hits a civilian target after civilian target in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, uh you know, hospitals, schools over and over, entire villages at a time. If we really meant the word terrorist as it is defined, there's no question that Israel would be defined it as a terrorist government, right? And And who has tried to hit more civilians, Iran or Israel?

[00:11:25]Not close at all. Definitely Israel.

[00:11:29]Israel has killed about 100 times the civilians of Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran and they have a worse civilian kill ratio. So if there was any objectivity in our news, they would all tell you that we're backing the terrorist state and they are and yes, it's not a matter of Iran being honorable. It's a matter of Israel being terribly dishonorable and they never listen to a ceasefire.

[00:11:54]They violated literally thousands of times. They target children. They're And now as now Nicholas Kristof confirming in the New York Times, they're using dogs to rape Palestinian detainees. Good for Kristof for reporting the truth about that by the way. Dana Bash should acknowledge that reporting because she's the one who on CNN denied that Palestinians were getting raped by IDF soldiers.

[00:12:18]>> That's because she lies for Israel all the time. She's not remotely objective and CNN has her on specifically to lie on behalf of Israel. That's why they have almost all of their anchors. So now you see though that even the Kagans of the world are saying, "Yeah, those guys who are debating this issue on cable news don't even listen to our own puppets because the reality is we've lost this war and if you in his the unspoken sentence is, "If you care about Israel, we got to get the hell out of there because this is turning really bad for us." But will the lunatics in charge of Israel even listen to their own friends like that? No, they will not.

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